I will start off with an "AWE" because this story is not like any other travel tour. It is the mother of all tourist attractions in China or you may say in the world. Yes, it is the "Majestic Great Wall of China. What a breath-taking and splendiferous, monumental structure. We all heard of many alluring stories and myths about the "Great Wall of China" in our childhood days in the school text books. But it is much more enticing and captivating, when you freaking stand on the wall and experience the immeasurable and stupendous architecture that was built almost 2000 years ago. Although the walls were built and rebuilt several times by different Emperors of the ruling dynasties but finally ends with long reign period by the Qing Dynasty over Ming Dynasty. The wall was closed for about a few centuries under Chairman Mao until in 1984, when a new ruler (Deng Xiaoping) re-opened the gates of the "Great Wall" to the world and opted to restore China's national pride because the wall witnessed many significant historical events.
As I stepped into the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall, I felt a frisson of excitement and embarked on the hike to watchtower 22. The wall snakes over the hills and rolling mountains with few of the extended part been crumbled, overgrown and barred to hikers and some vanishing into gaps made by roads and reservoirs. I was geared up with my camera and lenses and hiked through the rattled, bumpy and potholed stairs of uneven heights. At few areas, the height of the stairs leveled almost to my knees and I had to crawl to climb up the watchtower. I met a group of hikers as well and most of them happened to be an expert hiker. Coping up with this craggy hike, we took almost 2 hours to reach the watchtower 22 snapping different landscapes and self portraits.
"Serenity" is the word which I would like to ponder over describing the transcendental feeling that I experienced from top of the watchtower. The moment was cosmic and so pure that I spent more than an hour or so in the same spot soaking in the brisk cool winds with sun setting in front of my eyes over the gigantic "Great Wall". Flashbacks swaddled with imaginations of different historical events were surpassing my mind and felt fortunate to witness the historical landmark. With sunset, we started off to hike back those steepy, rutted path but this time it was more strenuous since you had to support your body weight on your toes while climbing down. The excitement ends with a perfect "Toboggan ride" which is a slide-way to get down from the Great Wall to the village through the mountain terrains.
I would like to call this hike as an indelible, unfading, enthralling and everlasting one with a hope in mind to visit it again from another sections.
PS: Tourists coming to China (especially Beijing) must visit this heritage of historical epitome otherwise the tour will be called as "floccinaucinihilipilification".

gundappa.saha

I am a photographer by passion and love to click landscapes, portraits and street lives. My main motto of clicking is to bring out the story from the photograph and at the same time keeping the aesthetics of the frame intact.